Wendy wrote:

I have often read about orchid flowers blasting from the gases emitted
from rotting fruit?

So if you have a nice blooming plant, on the coffee table & a bowl of
fruit on the dining table, with one bad apple, would it blast the flowers?


Almost certainly... Unless you had a very large dining room and
excellent air circulation. Here at MSU, we have whole rooms which have
signs that have an apple with a diagonal line through them. "NO
APPLES". Some people think that is funny. The apple doesn't have to
be bad, a firm ripe apple is also a bad idea. One bad apple really does
spoil the bunch, and one not so bad apple can spoil a whole walk-in
cooler full of flowers...

Also, some people force bloom their Tillandsias (Bromeliad/air plant) to
have
them blooming for a show & they would put the plant in a plastic
bag with a piece of apple?


Ethylene promotes ripening, and I believe in bromeliads (including
pineapples) it induces flowering. It is pretty versatile. It is
believed by many (or was believed, when I was still in school) that
apples evolved (or were selected for) the ability to produce large
quantities of ethylene gas from a single ripe fruit. This induces the
more fruit on the tree to ripen, and quickly cascades to ensure that all
fruit are ripe at very close to the same time. Important if you are
trying to induce furry critters to visit your house and spread your
seeds. Or if you are an orchardist and you only want to pick your tree
once (and have uniformly bright red and delicious looking apples, of
course). Other fruits, including bananas, also seem to have the same
skill.

Rob

--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit